Xbox Live Users Scammed In Phishing Attack

Kristen Yang

Guest Writer / Web Graphics

November 22nd, 2011

The recent attack on the PlayStation Network back in April 2011 left around 70 million gamers worldwide in the dark and fearful at the possibility of personal account details and credit card information having been taken. At the same time, users were furious over the lengthy outage that followed as Sony attempted to bring its service back online.

If that wasn’t enough suffering for gamers, more news emerged today of another cyber-hacking scheme which affected gamers in the U.K. and 34 other countries worldwide that use Xbox Live. It has been reported that an average of about £100 to £200 (about $300) were purportedly stolen from thousands of Xbox Live accounts in the U.K and abroad through “phishing.”

Apparently, gamers were taken to bogus websites that were emailed to them informing them that they could obtain free Microsoft Points to purchase games with. They were then instructed to enter in personal details which gave the hackers the ability to access their credit card information, with small amounts of money taken over several weeks. Money was also taken when passwords were compromised.

Gamers eventually found out that their online user profiles were unavailable when they noticed they were locked. Gamers also purportedly befriended the hackers in exchange for their personal details.

As a result of the attack, Xbox staff members spent last night probing the cyber thefts and looking into how to protect gamers’ information from future attacks. Microsoft has informed gamers that they will be refunded if they can prove their passwords were not compromised, and they are advised to change said passwords. Stay tuned for more details once information becomes available.

Hey guys! Name's Kristen Yang, I'm currently 23 years old and living in Toronto, Ontario in Canada ;). Currently I work as a Service Desk Analyst at CIBC Mellon, but on the side I do my fair share of video gaming and art, as well as piano, hang out, and movies.
If there were a few words to describe me, it would be: introspective, friendly, short tempered (at times >_
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